Ricki Findleton who raped pregnant teenager and dangled victim from railway bridge in Fife jailed

A violent rapist who carried out sex attacks on a pregnant teenager and dangled his victim over a railway bridge has been jailed for nine years.

Ricki Findleton raped two victims and molested a 13-year-old girl during a campaign of abuse that spanned eight years.

One victim who was subjected to sex attacks during a pregnancy was left fearing for the wellbeing of her unborn son.

A judge told Findleton, 27, at the High Court in Edinburgh that his sexual offending was serious in itself but the acts of violence he perpetrated were “disturbing”.

Lady Haldane said: “It was plainly harrowing for the first two complainers, in particular, to give their evidence and they showed enormous courage in doing so.”

She said a background report prepared on the sex offender made for “dispiriting reading” as he continued to deny any responsibility for his crimes.

The judge said that Findleton even suggested that victims were motivated to testify against him for “monetary gain”.

She ordered that Findleton, formerly of Burntisland, Fife, should be monitored for a further five years under an extended sentence.

Lady Haldane told him that he would be under licence during that period and if he breached conditions would be liable to be returned to prison to serve out that whole sentence in custody.

Findleton had denied a series of charges during an earlier trial in which he claimed he was the victim of wicked lies.

He was convicted of a total of 12 charges – four offences of rape, two of underage sex, two of threatening or abusive behaviour, one of assault, one of abduction and assault, one of sexual assault and one of indecent communication with a child.

The crimes were committed by him at addresses and locations in Burntisland and Kirkcaldy in Fife between 2011 and 2019.

One woman, who was twice subjected to rapes by Findleton when she was a pregnant teenager, said she feared for her unborn child following the second sex attack.

She said she was crying and in pain during the sexual assault and told the court: “I knew he had used a lot of force. I had a lot of bleeding.”

The 26-year-old woman said: “I was eight months and two weeks pregnant. I was scared my son had been harmed. I think on that occasion I went to the hospital to make sure everything was okay with my son.”

She said that following the sexual assault on her in 2011 she went to the bathroom, but realised there was blood coming from her.

She told advocate depute Donald Davidson that the bleeding resulted from the assault rather than being due to her pregnancy.

The woman said that after Findleton subjected her to the rape late in her pregnancy he told her “that was nice” and went to play with an Xbox games concole and smoked a joint.

She said that on other occasions Findleton, who first had sex with her when she was aged 15, subjected her to abuse and assaults.

She said that on one occasion in Burntisland he pushed her to the ground, picked her up by the ankles so that they were level with his shoulders before he dangled her from a bridge over a railway line.

Construction worker Findleton claimed that the incident did not happen.

A second woman, now aged 22, had underage sex with Findleton and was later subjected to rape, including following the birth of her son in 2016.

A 13-year-old girl received a message from Findleton in 2019 in which he said he really wanted to have sex with her. She said: “He was texting me saying how beautiful I was.”

The teenager said she was sent an obscene image by him and was molested by him. She told police: “I just don’t want it happening to another girl.”

Findleton was told that he would be placed on the sex offenders’ register for an indefinite period.